Tampa, Fla. (February 16, 2009) – This year the
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Black History Celebration will be a
combined effort with other governmental agencies forming the Florida
Governmental Collaboration Organization. To present this unified Black
History Program to the Tampa Bay community we worked in partnership with
the City of Tampa Police Department, the Hillsborough County School
Board, the State of Florida, the City of Tampa, the Mayor’s
African-American Advisory Council and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parade Committee.

The celebration will take place on Saturday,
February 21, 2009 at Middleton High School, located at 4801 North 22nd
Street in Tampa, Florida. It will begin with an Education Fair from 9:00
a.m. to 12:30 p.m. followed by the program from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The theme is, It Takes a Village to Teach Our
Youth - We are the Village. The program includes City of Tampa Mayor
Pam Iorio, Major Thomas Feeney of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s
Office, Pastor Moses Brown, Deputy Monique DeVage, Glenton Gilzean, Jr.,
Major Gerald Honeywell of the Tampa Police Department, Bettye G.
Johnson, the Middleton and Blake High School Gospel Choirs, and the
keynote speaker, Tariq Anwar–Bassett Sharrief. Tariq is a ninth grade
student at Jesuit High School.

This Black History Celebration is free and open to
the public. For more information about the program please contact Deputy
C. M. DeVage at (813) 247-0952 or via e-mail at
cdevage@hcso.tampa.fl.us.